In addition to the thousand posts at NOVA Geoblog, it’s been a terrific run here at the AGU Blogosphere: 1650 posts and counting! I’m really grateful to AGU for taking the initiative* to start the AGU Blogosphere and to have maintained it and upgraded it and recruited excellent new blogs during my time here.

* The project was spearheaded by María José Viñas, who’s since moved onto NASA, and is ably managed nowadays by Larry O’Hanlon. My deepest gratitude to both.

Here are six years of data about visitation to this blog, showing spikes for particularly popular posts:

During that time here at the AGU Blogosphere, I’ve had a lot of people stop by:

Blogging has become my favorite way to spool up my brain each morning, with a low stakes, motivated-by-fun act of stringing together images and words to share something interesting. 315 of those posts have been Friday folds of one sort or another – About 6 years of Friday folds in 7 years! There have also been 130+ book reviews in there, a substantive documentation in its own right.

It’s always been a labor of love, and I haven’t yet gotten paid a nickel for it. That said, it’s sort of been the centerpiece of my career, and a major achievement in outreach and informal geoscience education.

When I started this blog, I wasn’t alone. As Chris Rowan has pointed out, late 2007/early 2008 was a sort of “Cambrian Explosion” for the geoblogosphere. Many of those blogs have been “fossilized” over the ensuing decade, though there are a few that yet persist. It seems to me that most of the action has shifted to Twitter, though. I wonder where we’ll be doing #scicomm at the end of 2027?

It’s been a significant ten years for me personally. Though my job at Northern Virginia Community College has been a constant, I’ve gotten married and my wife and I have had a son, and moved out into the country from my former digs in the city. I’ve taught more than a thousand students, and run a series of successful field courses, and gotten some grants, and won some awards, and been elected to important roles in useful organizations. I’ve been keeping busy.

But that means I haven’t had as much time for blogging lately as I used to. The scant action around here lately is a symptom of greater involvement in a bunch of other projects. Other deadlines or initiatives or official positions take up attention that previously was available for blogging. That’s a bummer for the blog, but good news for the bigger picture. I’ve gotten involved in a bunch of cool work beyond the classroom in this past decade.

What will the next decade bring? I can’t wait to find out. I’ll keep you in the loop as it all pans out.

Comments

2 Comments

Congratulations on 10 years Callan. The quality of your posts is a source of amazement to me, as is your consistent dedication to public understanding of geology. I think your students are very fortunate.

The point about the Cambrian explosion of blogs a decade ago is really interesting. I was wondering which blogs from that era are still going? Yours, mine and Magma Cum Laude. Highly Allocthonous too?

I know of:-
Oakland Geology started in Sept 2007 (and really grew out of something else, so may be the longest by far).
Geotripper started in January 2008.
Arizona Geology in 2007 (and is still going despite the tragic loss of Lee)
Rapid Uplift in 2007
Looking for Detachment actually started in 2006, but didn’t really get going until early 2008
Adventures in the World of Geology started in September 2007

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About Callan

Callan Bentley is an assistant professor of geology at Northern Virginia Community College. He is a fellow of the Geological Society of America and the 2018 National Association of Geoscience Teachers' James Shea Awardee. He has also won the Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia, and the Biggs Award for Excellence in Geoscience Teaching from the Geoscience Education Division of the Geological Society of America. Callan is a contributing editor at EARTH magazine and Past President of the Geological Society of Washington and the Geo2YC division of NAGT. He lives in the Fort Valley of Virginia.

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